What is 21st Century Socialism?

Joel D. Hirst
International Affairs Fellow in Residence
Council on Foreign Relations
 Call it What you Will…
“Illiberal Democracy” – Dr. Bruce Bagley, Miami U.
“Dictatorship with Popular Support” – Juan Bosch,
President of Dominican Republic
“Post-Democratic Model” – Norberto Ceresole
“21st Century Socialism” – Heinz Dieterich
“Popular and Protagonist Democracy” – Bolivarian
Alliance Countries
 Guiding Principles
Current World Order New World Order
Motto: Life, Liberty and the Motto: Fatherland,
Pursuit of Happiness Socialism or Death
Universality of Rights National Sovereignty
Trumps All Trumps All
 Political Model
Representative Democracy
 Legitimacy of government derived from
the consent of the governed demonstrated
through period elections of
representatives
 Opposition must be nurtured and
protected
 Separation of powers
 Hard (legal) separation between
government, party and state
 Political tolerance
 Term limits for the executive
 Professional/non-partisan civil service
administrating the nation for the benefit of
all
 Increasingly transparent, decentralized
governments more responsive to the
people
Participatory and Protagonist Democracy
 Legitimacy of government derived from
the ongoing approval of the “permanent
majorities” demonstrated through
constant plebiscites or elections
 Opposition must be destroyed
 “Separation of powers weakens the state”
 Blurring of the lines between government,
party and state
 Conflict serves to cement permanent
majorities
 Presidents for as long as the permanent
majority allow
 Partisan civil service at the service of the
revolution and the permanent majorities
 Centralized, secretive government
 Approach to Human Rights
Civil and Political Liberties
 Nucleus of hard rights: life,
speech, assembly, religion,
property, fair judicial process
 International treaties serve as
guarantors of progressive rights
(International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, UN
Declaration of Human Rights, etc.)
 Rights are universal, progressive,
irreversible and un-renounceable
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
 The right to read is more
important than the right to
speech, the right of a job is more
important than assembly
 International treaties are
mechanisms of imperial control
by the developed world to
maintain their exploitation and
domination of the poorest
 Rights are subject to the will of
the permanent majority via
referenda
 Economic Model
Liberal Economic Order
 Market based provision of the needs
and desires of a diverse citizenry
 State serves as a arbiter over disputes
 Pre-eminent right of private property
 Protection of intellectual property
rights
 Conflict resolution through
international mechanisms such as
WTO, ICJ, international arbitration
 Free trade agreements
Socialist Economy
 State responsible to provide for the
basic needs of the permanent
majority
 State is actively involved in service
provision
 Property not a right but a privilege
granted by the state
 Sovereignty above international rule
of law, international arbitration is a
mechanism of “imperial domination”
 State cooperation for the provision of
the basic needs of the permanent
majority
 Military Doctrine
Rules of War
 Geneva convention, International
Humanitarian Law and rules of war
guarantee a world with decreasing
conflict
 Terrorism, irregular militias, arming of
children, arming of the general
population, and guerilla warfare are
illegal and prosecutable by the ICC
 Professional armed forces to “provide
for the common defense” of the
nation
Asymmetric Warfare
 Rules of war and International
Humanitarian Law are mechanisms of
imperial control to wrest from the
peripheral countries their only
mechanisms of legitimate defense
 Terrorism, militias and guerilla
warfare are legitimate mechanisms of
defense for peripheral countries, as
Arafat once said, “give me an air force
like Israel’s and I wouldn’t use
terrorism”
 Partisan armed forces at the service
(internally and externally) of the
revolution